Butch Walker, 'Coming Home'

"I really wanted to stay away from anything too literal in favor of something bigger, more fantastical and ethereal." And with that concept, director Olivier Agostini completely drew me into a sweet story while turning me on to Butch Walker's new video for the song "Coming Home."

Butch Walker was a guitarist in a glam metal band (SouthGang), a singer and guitarist with Marvelous 3, and later-turned-producer for Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, and Pink. Go figure. He's also been making his own songs, and his latest is "Coming Home" from the EP Peachtree Battle.

The video for "Coming Home" works in part because it and the music have two different story lines. "I was really worried about someone wanting to make a literal interpretation of the lyric," Butch Walker tells us via email. "So I was relieved to receive this story line for it. Still, it conveys the tone of the words and has a beautiful older couple in it that I fell in love with on set."

The making of the video had another twist for Butch Walker. "The elderly man, played by Jack English," he says, "reminded so much of my father (who passed away two days prior to the shooting of the video), that it really freaked me out to be there." And while Butch didn't have to be on hand for the video shoot, he told director Agostini, "My dad would have wanted me here."

November 2, 2018 
Andrew Bird sings, "it's an uncivil war bloodless for now / and the poets they explode like bombs." Watch Andrew Bird peer into our distracted culture precisely when it needs our attention.

JS Ondara's debut album Tales of America is out Feb. 1 on Verve Forecast.
Josh Cheuse/Courtesy of the artisthide caption

May 4, 2018 
The band's new video, for the song "Cue The Machines," includes a mangled Alan Lomax choir recording from the 1950s, flamenco dancing and one of the most incredible live performances you'll ever see.